Cameron blog hit by cybersquatters

David Cameron's video blog has been targeted by cybersquatters supporting the UK Independence party who are directing users to a spoof Armando Iannucci video set to David Bowie's Changes.

Webcameron.org.uk, which launched last week, features the Conservative leader talking politics from his kitchen and hotel rooms.

However, a rival site with a similar internet address, webcameron.info, appeared two days after the launch of the official Conservative site.

Internet users looking for webcameron who go to the .info address find a link through to a YouTube page where the spoof video is available.

At the foot of its homepage is small print stating: "(c)1996 New Labour. All words, hand gestures, insincere facial expressions and media stunts used strictly under licence from the Labour Party's mid-90's 'Spin your way to the top' guide."

The spoof video comes from Iannucci's recent BBC2 show, Time Trumpet, and features footage of Mr Cameron speaking, intercut with snippets of speeches by the prime minister, Tony Blair, in which he uses exactly the same phrases.

Towards the end of the spoof video, the two leaders become synched with Bowie song Changes. So far around 7,000 people have viewed the clip.

According to domain name management company NetNames, the web address is registered to UKIPhome, a support group of UKIP that claims to be the "unofficial, unauthorised but proudly pro-Ukip voice for positive, progressive, small government reform".

Jonathan Robinson, the chief operating officer at NetNames, said: "Politicians are just as vulnerable to online threats as film stars or any major brand.

"One of the first steps of setting up a new website is checking the availability not only of your desired domain name, but also of alternatives including the .com and .co.uk versions.

"Unfortunately, in this instance, David Cameron has seen his effort to harness the power of the internet stumble at one of its first hurdles."

Another website with a similar name, webcameron.com, run by an Australian poet called Cameron M Semmens, crashed following the launch of Mr Cameron's website, after UK users went online to try to find the video blog.

The poet has since put a note up on the homepage of his website stating clearly that it is not Mr Cameron's weblog.

According to Mr Cameron's first video post, on September 29, the website is intended as a "really good way of communicating directly with people about what the Conservative party is doing and what we believe in".

Mr Cameron has also not registered the webcameron.eu domain name.

During the last general election, Liberal Democrat MP Mark Oaten was the victim of cybersquatting from his Conservative rival George Hollingbery, who seized the markoaten.co.uk domain name and directed visitors to his own site.

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